Day 12, Torino

The adventures of Christie and Vicki have just kicked into high gear. Tonight was the official start of the organized opera tour Gramma signed us up for. This is my first time ever on an organized tour like this, and so far so good! We just got back to our hotel room after a nice dinner with the whole group (minus the two who stayed away due to feeling quite ill after all their travels). As expected, Gramma is the oldest and I'm the youngest in the group, but the people come from all over. There are 10 of us including the director: a couple from near Boston, a couple from Greenville, South Carolina, a woman from chicago, the couple from California who weren't feeling well tonight, and then us. It was fun talking with all these different people, and I'm sure it'll be fun to get to know them more over the next week or so. You're not going to believe this, but I actually ate tongue again. But this time it was cooked. And I had no idea what it was. (I have my friend Doursean's beautiful face stuck in my mind everytime I eat meat, especially the odd, sensitive parts like tongue. Doursean, I need a meatless retreat after all of this!)

Earlier today I had the chance to get out and walk around the city on my own. I headed straight for the river (shopping all the way) and walked down to the water's edge. A fisherman named Matteo immediately struck up some conversation with me, in Italian of course. So I did my best. He took some photos of me (with my camera) and then I took one of the both of us. He showed me the one fish he had caught, and told me that the light would be better later on if I wanted to come back for more photos... Or at least I think that's what he was saying. In far fewer words, I told him I was part of this very important opera tour and that it would be impossible for me to come back later. So off I went, back to wander around the town some more, do a little more shopping, and get some delicious Italian gelato.

Tomorrow we'll have some sort of walking tour around here, and then we're going to see "Falstaff" in the evening. Should be fun! Good thing I like hanging out with old folks!